A+E Interactive » World of Tankshttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei
Bay Area Arts and Entertainment BlogMon, 30 Mar 2015 12:40:46 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1World of Tanks New Frontiers update offers major upgradeshttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2014/04/16/world-of-tanks-new-frontiers-update-offers-major-upgrades/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2014/04/16/world-of-tanks-new-frontiers-update-offers-major-upgrades/#commentsThu, 17 Apr 2014 00:19:43 +0000Gieson Cachohttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/?p=26569
World of Tanks is in for some major changes. Starting April 17, Wargaming.net will launch its Update 9.0 called New Frontiers. Producer Joshua Morris is looking at the 2014 as a year of transition, where the developer plans to lay… Continue Reading →]]>World of Tanksis in for some major changes. Starting April 17, Wargaming.net will launch its Update 9.0 called New Frontiers. Producer Joshua Morris is looking at the 2014 as a year of transition, where the developer plans to lay the foundation for the future.
"The features we're introducing will carry over patch after patch," he said. The most obvious difference is the high-polygon tanks. Now the armor looks more realistic than ever. If you take a look at the turrets, they appear more rounded. Players can even see the treads and wheels moving with the rocky terrain. Working hand in hand with the visuals is the Havok physics engine, which allows the team to create more interactive environments and vehicles.
The American tanks look more realistic than ever.DESTRUCTIBLE ENVIRONMENTS: Now, World of Tanks allows players to destroy buildings. This is a game-changer for several reasons. Players can't rely on structures to protect them during battles because their cover can be blown to smithereens. Players will have to change tactics and adjust their thinking. Although some structures can be taken down, not all of them are destructiable. Morris said they still had to keep the integrity of the map intact. There will still be lanes to travel down and choke points to guard. When it comes destroyed buildings, players can still traverse them but it will slow them down.
Another change in combat is that tanks can now be flipped over. Morris said that because of the high-polygon models, the team feels OK to show what the underside of the vehicles look like. Best of all, those turned-over tanks can act as a shield. If that didn't whet fans' appetite for destruction, they can also blow up enemy armor so that the turret pops up like a Champagne cork. What's great about this is that the exploded part can still cause damage on its way down and if it hits a vehicle low on energy, the turret debris can wreck it.
The tanks aren't the only thing getting a face-lift. The maps will get a new look as well.AMMO MATTERS: When it comes to ammo in World of Tanks, physics has an impact on that as well. Players who fire high-explosive round into a building will, of course, obliterate it. But shooting an armor-piercing round has a different effect. It can go through the walls and strike a vehicle on the other side leaving structure intact. Lastly, tanks will start handling more realistically with some vehicles struggling to scale hills while others speeding over it. The advantages between heavy armor and maneuverability is more apparent.
Morris said that these changes will slightly increase the required specs for World of Tanks, but it's still low enough to appeal to players all over the world, many of whom may not have killer rigs. He said the update was necessary to stay competitive in an industry that's always raising the bar. Where Wargaming won't have a problem is in the content. With more than 200 tanks, there's enough vehicles out there to choose from. Also, that means the high-polygon visuals for the armor won't be put out all in one go. It'll be done in batches.
The British Tortoise heavy assault tank is an impressive vehicle that looks great with a high-polygon count.GET READY FOR THREE NEW MODES: The final piece of the puzzle is the modes. To keep players' attention, World of Tanks will add three new modes in the future. The one coming soonest is Historical Battles. The team has been wanting to include this in the free-to-play MMO for a while. But they couldn't find the magical formula to do it. They wanted to make the battles accurate to the past with the same vehicles, but coming up with a way to balance the fight was difficult. In World War II, the German tanks were superior, and the Allies defeated them with air power and artillery strikes, something that's hard to do in a game focused solely on armo.
After several iterations, they came up with a mix that incorporates the correct vehicles but it allows some tanks to respawn. That evens the odds a bit. It lets some players be aggressive in battle while others using bigger and more powerful armor have to be conservative. It beats having two shoot tanks in different areas to destroy them, an idea that was used in experiments but wasn't as fun as planned, Morris said. What's great is that players records for historical matches will be recorded and those who participate in enough battles can earn some special prizes. The team hinted at some special types of tanks. (Captured Panzer IV with a Russian paint job anyone?)
The desert is one of the places players will battle.GET READY FOR SOME BASE BUILDING: Further into the future, players can participate in Fortified Areas. It offers a new twist on clan warfare. In this mode, players can build fortifications that grant bonuses to the group. They can build a number of these buildings on a map, and they'll have to defend it against invading clans. Morris compares the modeto Clash of Clans because players need to gather resources to construct these base facilities, and I assume they'll need to hold on to territory to generate it.
I actually like the idea of base building and putting up pill boxes and calling in bombers to help defend the clan's stronghold. It's a way for smaller clans to still have fun now that the bigger organizations dominate the world map, and best of all, it's separate from that part of the game.
Lastly, there's something called the Garage Battle Mode, which lets players select a handful of tanks from their own personal collection. They can then take those vehicles into battle and use them as the fight dictates. At the moment, this is the feature that's furthest out. Wargaming.net is still tinkering with it, so don't expect a detailed look at it until later in the year.
For now, players can get a taste of the World of Tanks Update 9.0: New Frontiers when it's released on PC on April 17.
Images courtesy of Wargaming.netWant to know what Gieson Cacho is playing? Follow him at Twitter.com/gcacho.
]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2014/04/16/world-of-tanks-new-frontiers-update-offers-major-upgrades/feed/4WoT_Screens_Combat_Update_9_0_Image_01WoT_Screens_Tanks_USA_M103_Update_9_0_Image_01WoT_Screens_Maps_Mountain_Pass_Update_9_0_Image_03WoT_Screens_Tanks_Britain_Tortoise_Update_9_0_Image_01WoT_Screens_Combat_Update_9_0_Image_02By: TwitterButtons.comHow Wargaming.net is conquering MMOs by land, air, seahttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2013/09/27/how-wargaming-net-is-conquering-mmos-by-land-air-sea/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2013/09/27/how-wargaming-net-is-conquering-mmos-by-land-air-sea/#commentsFri, 27 Sep 2013 22:12:44 +0000Gieson Cachohttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/?p=26001
Although it’s made a name for itself recently among the PC crowd, Wargaming.net has been a game developer that’s been around for the past 15 years. A studio that originally worked on strategy games, the developer enjoyed a meteoric rise… Continue Reading →]]>
Although it's made a name for itself recently among the PC crowd, Wargaming.net has been a game developer that's been around for the past 15 years. A studio that originally worked on strategy games, the developer enjoyed a meteoric rise based on the success of World of Tanks.
The free-to-play MMO has caught on with 70 million players, and Wargaming.net is expanding with plans for World of Warships and World of Warplanes. The former is still in development but the latter is close to a release. The flying game been in beta for what seems like forever, but now, World of Warplanes is set to launch globally Nov. 12 and 13.
I had a chance to speak with Gareth Luke, Wargaming.net's senior producer, about the company's plans for the future at a recent San Francisco event. He offered details on World of Warplanes, World of Tanks on the Xbox 360 and how the company is going to eventually combine the trilogy of games.
A WIDE ARRAY OF PLANES: Even though it's in open beta, Luke says World of Warplanes has attracted 3 million players. It's a large but growing audience attracted to the game's style of dogfighting. It pits warfighters from Germany, USSR, the United States and Japan against each other. Each plane is customizeable and the game connects players so that they're evenly matched via tiers. Don't expect Korean War-era jets to shoot down World War I biplanes.
Luke says the 15 versus 15 combat is fast and as close to authentic as possibly while still making it playable for the masses. Players can change the paint, add new parts and mix and match weapons just as long as its historically accurate. The game even supports flight sticks and other peripherals. But the developer fudged on some aspects of flying, the team slowed the jets down from their real-life speeds so that they could be easily controlled. In another nod toward gameplay, the developer added a limited boost that's meant to get players out of trouble or help them in a dogfight.
With land already conquered by tanks, air set to be taken over in the fall, and naval battles in the works, will players expect to see all of them in one giant mash up? Although it seems that's what Wargaming.net is aiming for, it's not necessarily going to work that way.
COMBINING THE GAMES: Luke said that combining the MMOs so that planes would attack tanks and naval ships would shoot down jets would hurt the carefully crafted balance of each franchise. "We don't want to be Battlefield 4," he said. He outlined a metagame where generals fight over spots on the map and those spots are represented by in-game battles where tanks blast at tanks or battleships try to sink each other.
If those PC games weren't enough, Wargaming.net is also making headway into the console market. The company bought Day 1 Studios, makers of F.E.A.R. 3 and Fracture, and gave the team -- now named Wargaming West -- the task of building a World of Tanks from the ground up for the Xbox 360.
A FASTER VERSION ON CONSOLE: What players get is a faster experience than what they can find on the PC. Luke said it's a game that relies on new strategies based on the elevation of terrain, speed of the vehicles and layout of the map. Players can also expect the same sort of customization as the PC counterpart, and as always, World of Tanks is still free to play for Xbox Live gold members.
But if it's free to play, why not open up the game to Xbox Live silver members? Luke said initially the team wanted to do that. It gives World of Tanks a better chance at success with a wider user-base, but Microsoft persuaded the team to go the gold member route. He said it's something the developer had to learn as they shifted toward making a game for the console demographic.
Those hoping to see the game on other systems will have to wait. Wargaming.net has an exclusive deal with Microsoft for the World of Tanks, and besides, Luke said, the Xbox 360 has the biggest user base among this generation of consoles. Right now, World of Tanks for the system is in a closed beta and a release date is still up in the air.
Images courtesy of Wargaming.net
Want to know what Gieson Cacho is playing? Follow him on Twitter.
]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2013/09/27/how-wargaming-net-is-conquering-mmos-by-land-air-sea/feed/1WoWP_Screens_Warplanes_Britain_Image_05WoT_Xbox_360_Edition_Screens_Tanks_Image_02By: TwitterButtons.com